INDIANAPOLIS (May 10, 2019) — Gen Con, the largest and longest-running tabletop gaming convention in North America, announces Tanya DePass and Steve Kenson as its 2019 Gen Con Insights speakers. Each will deliver a short talk in front of a live convention audience, to be streamed live on the convention’s Twitch channel and made available afterward on YouTube.

“Tabletop gaming has become much more accessible to a wider audience in recent years, in part due to the availability of high-quality podcasts, livestreams, and other content made by passionate fans,” said Jeannette LeGault, Gen Con’s Senior Director of Event Programming. “Insights is our contribution to that conversation, providing talks about big ideas in gaming in a concise format with high production values.”

The Insights speakers for this year were selected as key contributors to the ongoing conversation about diversity in gaming, and are presented under the Insights theme for 2019, “Diversity by Design.”

Launched in 2018, Gen Con Insights is an initiative committed to sharing the stories and ideas that matter in tabletop gaming through the production, recording, and sharing of premiere speaking experiences. Previous Insights talks are available to view on demand on Gen Con’s YouTube channel.

Gen Con returns to Indianapolis August 1-4, 2019.

About Gen Con

Gen Con is the largest and longest-running annual event devoted to tabletop gaming culture in North America. The convention, which began in 1968 in Lake Geneva, WI, attracts 70,000 attendees and 520 exhibiting companies each year. During the convention, attendees choose from 17,000 ticketed events representing a wide array of board games, card games, roleplaying games, seminars, entertainment events, and more. Gen Con takes place each August in the Indiana Convention Center, Lucas Oil Stadium, and surrounding downtown hotel spaces in Indianapolis, IN.

About Tanya DePass

Tanya DePass (she/her) is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a non-profit organization based in Chicago dedicated to the better diversification of all aspects of gaming. She’s also part of Rivals of Waterdeep, a Dungeons & Dragons show on twitch.tv/dnd that features all POC and some LGBTQIA cast members. She often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality, and other topics at conventions. Her writing appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Vice Gaming, and other publications.

About Steve Kenson

Steve Kenson (he/him/his) began working in the tabletop RPG industry in 1992, freelancing for FASA Corporation. Since then, he has written well over fifty books and contributed to or co-authored many more. His 1999 Shadowrun novel Crossroads featured a gay protagonist, and Steve helped to launch the popular “Queer as a Three-Sided Die” panel on LGBTQ topics in tabletop gaming at Gen Con.